Blue Moons, Glitches Prompt Columnist To Fess Up

OTHER VIEWS

December 30, 1996|By David Broder,Washington Post Writers Group

WASHINGTON — Mr. President, you would not believe how many blue moons we had in 1996!

I begin the annual recapitulation of errors and misjudgments in this unusual fashion because of something President Clinton told C-SPAN's Brian Lamb in a Book Notes interview earlier this month. When Lamb asked Clinton if there were any columnists ''not normally on your side (whom) you respect enough to read on a regular basis,'' the president replied: ''Oh, yeah. I read David Broder, and I respect him. And once in a blue moon he says something that I think is just haywire, but I think he's an honest fellow that tries to call it like he sees it.''

A blue moon is a rarity, of course, and I wish I could say the same about the times this column has gone haywire. True, 1996 provided no embarrassments to match the Great Goof of 1995, the inexplicable transplantation of Queen Beatrix from the Netherlands to Denmark. But there were plenty of minor glitches.

I goofed on one matter involving Clinton himself, writing in June that he had reneged in his youth on a commitment to join the Arkansas National Guard. It was, of course, the University of Arkansas ROTC unit that he spurned.

I shortchanged the Democrats in November by stating that there were only five states where Democrats emerged from the election holding the governorship and both houses of the legislature. There are six.

And because no year is complete without an unprovoked assault on the native language, I was properly chastised for not knowing the singularity of the verb form ''doth.'' Writing skeptically of all the proclamations of unity issuing from the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, I plagiarized: ''Methinks, they doth protest too much.'' An ever-vigilant copy editor at The Washington Post caught the error before it reached print here, changing it to ''do protest too much.'' But elsewhere, it was printed as I wrote it, bringing me rebukes from readers such as a lady in York, Maine, who knew that '''doth' is third-person singular'' and ''do'' is the plural form, ''even in biblical language,'' as she wrote in pungent purple ink.

In rereading the 100-odd columns of 1996, I find that some seem very odd indeed. Squinting through rose-colored glasses, I can purport some consistency in the treatment of a few recurrent subjects - ticket-splitting and divided government, civility and the lack thereof, campaign money and news-media consultants, education and its ailments, for example. From beginning to end of the campaign year, Bob Dole was described here as a good man and able Senate leader, attempting the impossible in seeking to make himself a plausible and effective presidential candidate. The other key Republican, Newt Gingrich, was depicted here as a man at war with himself - his strategic boldness constantly in conflict with his penchant for self-promotion and almost juvenile tendency to get into scrapes.

Clinton was harder to get right - and I'm not sure I ever did. Admiration for his political skills came in counterpoint to dismay at his readiness to cast off party allies and principles for the sake of winning another campaign - and his tendency to postpone both hard budget choices and troublesome ethical questions past his last Election Day. I fear that those chickens will come home to roost in 1997.

The column that drew the greatest response from readers dealt with none of these topics or individuals but with reminiscences of my Army service occasioned by a return visit to Salzburg. A portion of the letters expressed anger that a Memorial Day column did not emphasize the horrors of war and the number of lives that were cut short - or cruelly curtailed - by combat.

But many more men and women said they too looked back on their military service as one of the most important and most positive experiences of their lives. I appreciate, more than I can say, what you readers have shared with me this past year - especially, letting me know when you think I've been wrong. I am confident that 1997 will provide a wealth of opportunities for you to straighten me out again.